Affront, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Affronted; p. pr. & vb. n. Affronting.]
Etymology: [OF. afronter, F. affronter, to confront, LL. affrontare to strike against, fr. L. ad + frons forehead, front. See Front.]
1. To front; to face in position; to meet or encounter face to face. [Obs.] All the sea-coasts do affront the Levant. Holland. That he, as 't were by accident, may here Affront Ophelia. Shak.
2. To face in defiance; to confront; as, to confront; as, to affront death; hence, to meet in hostile encounter. [Archaic]
3. To offend by some manifestation of disrespect; to insult to the face by demeanor or language; to treat with marked incivility. How can any one imagine that the fathers would have dared to affront the wife of Aurelius Addison.
Syn. -- TO insult; abuse; outrage; wound; illtreat; slight; defy; offend; provoke; pique; nettle.
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Affront, n.
1. An encounter either friendly or hostile. [Obs.] I walked about, admired of all, and dreaded On hostile ground, none daring my affront. Milton.
2. Contemptuous or rude treatment which excites or justifies resentment; marked disrespect; a purposed indignity; insult. Offering an affront to our understanding. Addison.
3. An offense to one's self-respect; shame. Arbuthnot.
Syn. -- Affront, Insult, Outrage. An affront is a designed mark of disrespect, usually in the presence of others. An insult is a personal attack either by words or actions, designed to humiliate or degrade. An outrage is an act of extreme and violent insult or abuse. An affront piques and mortifies; an insult irritates and provokes; an outrage wounds and injures. Captious persons construe every innocent freedom into an affront. When people are in a state of animosity, they seek opportunities of offering each other insults. Intoxication or violent passion impels men to the commission of outrages. Crabb.
Shades of meaning
One may be annoyed by the well-meaning awkwardness of a servant, irritated by a tight shoe or a thoughtless remark, vexed at some careless neglect or needless misfortune, wounded by the ingratitude of child or friend. To tease is to give some slight and perhaps playful annoyance. Aggravate in the sense of offend is colloquial. To provoke, literally to call out or challenge, is to begin a contest; one provokes another to violence. To affront is to offer some defiant offense or indignity, as it were, to one's face; it is somewhat less than to insult. Compare pique.